Almost as important as how much the HOA dues are on this puppy: $750 a month! Which is actually a bargain, because that includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and most of all, one, count ’em, ONE parking space!

But who knew that San Francisco could cost almost as much as Mountain View?

May 22, 2012

Welcome back to Adventures in HDR! This occasional series shows the cutting edge of today’s real estate photography, if by cutting edge I actually meant OMG my eyes are bleeding. Today’s featured property was sent in by Petsmart Groomer, so thanks very much!

Welcome to another simply fantastic unit at The Palms. This northern-facing unit is perfect for the SF professional, it features spacious living and bedroom areas, as well as outdoor access to the garden belt. Gourmet kitchen includes SS Bosch stove-top and insert oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, Cabria Stone counter-tops, and Studio Becker cabinets. The kitchen and bathroom flooring/tub area were redone with new grout, wood floors were resurfaced, and new accent paint throughout. Custom CA Cabinetry in living and bedroom closets gives you tons of storage space. This unit comes with deeded parking at no extra cost to your HOA dues. Close to Wholefoods, Safeway, 25 Lusk, District, CoCo500, SF Tennis Club, AT & T Park, and public transportation.

Welcome to another simply fantastic set of photos of this Condo With Too Many Fours.

You think this is something? Click on through to see the rest, after donning a welding helmet that can shade to at least #13.

May 19, 2012

Have we discussed the price adjustments (up! up! up!) in both buying and renting in San Francisco due to the Facebook IPO? Not enough! Let’s see what happens when CNN lets one of its bloggers write a tl;dr post that makes our zip code pieces look like tweets by comparison.

(StockTwits) — The Basis Point is a popular mortgage and housing blog that tracks consumer critical issues and data. It is edited by Julian Hebron, a retail mortgage lender who runs the San Francisco branches of RPM Mortgage.

Three weeks ago, some clients wrote a $1.25 million offer on a 1,400 square foot 3-bed, 1-bath house with original kitchen and bath near San Francisco’s Dolores Park. They weren’t even close. There were 51 offers. It sold for $1.4 million and closed 8 days after offers were due.

That’s the most offers I’ve seen in 10 years. And a different property at that week got 23 offers.

Two weeks ago, another client offered $245,000 over list price on a 3-bed, 2-bath Pacific Heights condo. One of the other 9 offers was the winning bid in this $1.6 million to $1.9 million market segment. That was my client’s fourth rejected offer. He’s looking at two properties in this price range this week, and the listing agents are reporting similar demand: about 10 serious buyers circling.

That’s the norm. It’s what some are calling The Facebook Effect on San Francisco real estate.

That’s the norm: 10 serious buyers circling. StockTwits goes on at very great length to explain why this is happening, and mentions “The Facebook Effect” as if the term were newly minted. Here’s what Hebron said in much fewer words. (The charts are all linked from his article.)

1. Everyone not already working for Facebook is trying to buy before millions of Facebook employees get their license to print unlimited money

You will love this quote from the article:

The San Francisco buyer mindset is that they want to get in before they’re priced out, but they either haven’t reaped their firm’s windfall yet or don’t expect much if any windfall from their firm.

That’s right. They’re all worried about being Priced Out Forever. And this has never, never, ever happened before!

Twitter threatened to leave SF over the 1.5% payroll tax, what with all the high salaries and the stock option financials on top of that, Lee negotiated an adjustment with a maximum annual tax, and now all the other tech companies will expect similar easements. Which means they’ll stay in SF, which means high-paid twentysomething technogeeks will continue to buy real estate there, which means you can’t afford anything.

And this is all very interesting, except Facebook is not in SF. So why isn’t this article called “The Twitter Effect”?

May 18, 2012

Let’s finish out the week with another find in San Francisco. Once those Facebookers get their hands on all that IPO money, lots and land there are going to be made out of unobtainium. Thanks very much to Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer for this SoMa spot, ready for your serendipity.

This urban homestead, or Garage 4.0, depending on what use you feel is best, ready for you to build upon. But there’s so much more than a generous half of a tenth of an acre lot. There’s also a steady stream of hard liquor advertising dollars, too.

Well, the billboard seems attached to the building next door, but we didn’t say the advertising payments would be going to you. The agent just notes there is a “Billboard on Site”.

The photo also reveals that you’re close to transit. Real close. So let’s get a better picture of the lot, courtesy of Google Streetview.

April 19, 2012

We hope you enjoyed Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer week last week. Here’s another fine PG-produced property in San Francisco. Last week, we had a Tenderloin tenement masquerading as a Civic Center squat, so let’s move on to the Mission! And in acknowledgement of Spring Bounce, this property is also pending. San Francisco is hot I tell you, hot, hot, HOT!

Situated in the heart of the Inner Mission (cross-street is Harrison), this spacious and vacant 5BD/2BA home is on the market for the first time in over 50 years! Large one car garage. Rear yard. Just down the street from Flour + Water and close to an amazing variety of other great restaurants, cafes, and shops. Walk-Score = 97. Zoned RH-3, per the city’s 3R report. A great potential development opportunity in one of the city’s warmest and liveliest neighborhoods!

Look, it doesn’t matter how big a turd this building is. Location, location, location; even if every single piece of hardwood in the entire house ended up in this one room.

April 9, 2012

San Francisco continues to be hot hot HOT, with just about everything getting offers no matter what the problem may be. That’s bad news for buyers but great news for Burbed readers. Agents will put anything on the MLS figuring they can sell it! Thanks very much to Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer for this find in the Civic Center area! In fact, we’d like to thank Petsmart Groomer so much for so many quality submissions. With the official opening of the Spring Selling Season, this is going to be Petsmart Groomer WEEK.

April 6, 2012

We’ve been spending too much time in the Valley. Today’s photopalooza is courtesy of Burbed reader Kevin. And Kevin’s writeup, coupled with the amazing pictures of this thousand a foot Marina manse, are all that’s needed for a give-it-up Guest Post.

March 28, 2012

Have you heard? The housing market is hot, hot, hot! So many finds have that red PENDING banner smacked across the first picture because there’s so little inventory available (see chart). That means even a Burbed-worthy home may get more love from overbidders than from, well, Burbed. You would not believe how many homes that belong on the front page are snapped up and have their listings wiped clean off Redfin before we can even get the IP wrapper off our email.

But that’s great news for you, Burbed readers! If the market is this hot, that means more and more crapboxes will be listed with no attempt to put any lipstick on those pigs. And that means we are assured there’ll be plenty of prime content! Like today’s OMG THAT’S PENDING WTF? listing from Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer. Thanks very much for this listing that left many parts in San Francisco.

Here’s a perfect example of a house that doesn’t need any effort by a listing agent. It’s in Noe Valley, so just let the new buyer deal with any deferred maintenance. What do you want, this place was standing when The Big One hit in 1906 and it’s still here!

This home requires Court Confirmation to sell, so buying it will require some legal advice as well. And that’s not the realtard’s problem. You want this house? You should have been overbidding in January.

Now, a small amount of cleanup might be required. Take a good look at these pictures, because the agent couldn’t even be bothered to move the smallest little distractions out of the framing. What is up with all those bottles in the kitchen? It doesn’t matter. This market is HOT!

So, see if you can come up with a good story for each of these items.

The rest of the photos are to assure you of Burbed’s Good Housekeeping “Tag of Approval.” Some of you Negative Nellies might object that the living room and bedroom do not demonstrate good housekeeping at all. But, ah, the garage!

March 20, 2012

Thanks very much to Burbed reader Petsmart Groomer for finding one of those listings that seems like such a steal, you’ll be grabbing onto your wallet and wondering what the catch is. Why, the catch is this consummate condo! Why don’t you grab it before it gets away?

Live without limits in one of the world’s most romantic cities. Located in the celebrated Chronicle Building, The Ritz-Carlton Club San Francisco offers one, two and three-bedroom fractional ownership residences coupled with casually elegant service and amenities including valet parking, personal concierge, private fitness and member storage, daily housekeeping, residents’ lounge and more. This luxurious residence is 1,275 square feet with one bedroom and one and one-half bathrooms. Fine finishings such as a fully equipped chef’s kitchen, complete entertainment center, Italian marble bathrooms and wine storage come standard. The Ritz-Carlton Club San Francisco enjoys a pristine location in Union Square and is one hour from Napa Valley.

Whatever could possibly go wrong here? Sure, Market Street is busy 24 hours a day and this unit is on the third floor, but the City sounds (as well as the smells) are what you’re signing up for when you buy a place in Baghdad by the Bay, right? And the $1,398 monthly homeowner fees might come as a surprise after you slapped down the purchase price in cash, expecting to move in and only pay a pittance in property taxes.

But note that phrase “fractional ownership residences.” That means this isn’t your condo. Or rather, it isn’t just your condo. You’ll be sharing it with some other people, and the listing doesn’t bother specifying how many. For all you know, you get to use this condo from 4 to 6 am on alternate Thursdays in months without an R during Leap Years.

And it gets even better. This yours-some-of-the-time pied-a-terre, located close to Nordstrom and lots of homeless people, is bank-owned!

But the good news is the whatever-it-is-they’re-selling comes with a parking space, so you ought to overbid twice asking. Have you ever tried parking around here?

Here’s unit #301 in the same building, with an asking price half of this one, for three weeks a year. It’s been sitting all by its lonesome for almost a year (maybe the three weeks are already up). However, #301 is in an alternate 690 Market Street, which only has 49 units in the building, while #303 has 101 units. Good thing this 690 Market will give you so many more fractional neighbors!

Can anyone find out how much you get to “use” #303, as opposed to merely “owning” it? Can anyone figure out how many laws of physics were violated by these two condos (with the same photos) appearing on the same website?

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The posts on this weblog are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights. The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and only represent the view of Burbed.com's editor. Comments are the views of commenters, not Burbed. If companies, properties, etc are mentioned on this blog, you should assume that I have a financial stake in them. Trust no one.